Questions

[jjfelder]

I'm plodding along trying to figure out this game. I have no idea if I'm making progress or not. I've found my way into the sea caves and the catacombs, but am completely unsuccessful at getting through them. . . just keep getting whipped and having to run for it. Right now in the game, Joel has gone missing. Is it possible to play the game so that he doesn't go missing at all? Or at least survives? My combat skills don't seem to be getting any better, no matter how much training I do. I'm taking magic as an elective, and have several runes, but they don't seem to help me much either. How will I know when I've finished the game? I understand that it's not a linear game, but I could really use lots more help.

[psychotron666]

Try sneaking by enemies instead of fighting them. Your character is a rogue not a fighter.

Once Joel goes missing you can find the wraith that has him in the catacombs. There's many ways of doing it, you can kill him yourself, or once you engage the wraith you can do what I first did, run away and tell your teacher the next day about the wraith and get the paladin teacher to save him and kill the wraith.

[Anhaga]

For combat, the best way to up your skills is to fight, but you need to fight like a rogue--use traps, Gooeys, runes, etc. You can also kite enemies if you have a decently large clear area and enough daggers (or the Daggerang; I love the Daggerang so much, and it's a great reason to take on the Giant Proach early in the game).

On Joel, you can buy information about his whereabouts from Fester the Fence as well; you have to have already discovered the password in order to get into Fester's room, though. You can get that from Joel before he disappears, or get it from different ghosts in the Catacombs. Once you have the information about where Joel is, you'll have the opportunity to tell Master von Urwald during class, or Thomas will force you to tell Moira at dinner. In both cases, Moira will kill the wraith while you get Joel.

[jjfelder]

These are great suggestions. Thanks!

[Anhaga]

You're welcome! I personally LOOOOVE traps so much. Mobs can't hit you when they're caught in traps, and even regular traps do a little damage. Mighty traps do much more damage. I've ended up with something like 7 regular traps and 3 mighty traps on my combat run-throughs. That way, if the mob breaks out of one trap, you just throw another at it, and voila, it's stuck again. Pile up traps and use a damaging rune (Inferno for most mobs, Sol for undead), and you'll have each mob getting ticked down in health every round even if you don't hit them yourself.

[jjfelder]

I've gotten one part of the password, but can't get past the 3 skatters to the west in the main room to get the second part. I've sneaked and used runes and stil.l die on the 2nd or 3rd turn. Is there a trick to doing this? I wish traps worked on these guys!

[Anhaga]

Originally posted by jjfelder:

I've gotten one part of the password, but can't get past the 3 skatters to the west in the main room to get the second part. I've sneaked and used runes and stil.l die on the 2nd or 3rd turn. Is there a trick to doing this? I wish traps worked on these guys!

I often kite the skatters--they follow slowly enough that you can keep distance between you and them. Do you have enough daggers to knock them down? Also, be aware that the Frigida runestone nullifies their fire attack.

[psychotron666]

Originally posted by jjfelder:

I've gotten one part of the password, but can't get past the 3 skatters to the west in the main room to get the second part. I've sneaked and used runes and stil.l die on the 2nd or 3rd turn. Is there a trick to doing this? I wish traps worked on these guys!

If you sneak successfully, you don't get into combat at all, and thus don't die.

[Anhaga]

Originally posted by psychotron666:

Originally posted by jjfelder:

I've gotten one part of the password, but can't get past the 3 skatters to the west in the main room to get the second part. I've sneaked and used runes and stil.l die on the 2nd or 3rd turn. Is there a trick to doing this? I wish traps worked on these guys!

If you sneak successfully, you don't get into combat at all, and thus don't die.

That is hard in the Catacombs, though, PT--when I was doing my Perfect Prowler run, there were a ton of times that I had to re-load the game over and over to get past a particular group of Skatters (and specifically the Skatters--the Lemures and Skeletal Warriors are a lot easier to get past. It's definitely more time-efficient and less aggravating to fight them once you have the equipment to do so successfully.

[One Stoned Bastard]

What I found helpful in my own playthrough (some of those things I found out a bit late):

- Practice with weights almost every day, because they raise your Fitness (hitpoints!).
Fighting with monsters doesn't. After a few weight-lifting sessions you will be able to take a few more hits from monsters, which is a life saver. I didn't realize this until pretty late (I though Fitness was more like strength than vitality) and my character was pretty weak in direct fights (no problem though, just use the other tools available).

Also, Billiards and rope walking training can raise your Agility which helps with dodging. Other than Fitness and Agility though, it's best to learn by doing stuff or sometimes by spending a bit of time in the library. But I guess you can go for Gaming+Luck each day in the rec room at the Poobah table, it's only half an hour for 1 Luck point, and Luck isn't easy to raise otherwise.

Don't practice (too much) with skills that you could raise by actually doing. For example you can raise Combat and Defense by fighting drats in the cellar and it will be easy. And make you money. Lockpicking is worth training in the Lock Room sometimes (like when you're about to have an exam about it) but it's best to pick real locks if possible. Etc.

- ALWAYS use traps and runes!
Especially Spark (always!), Sol (undead), Freeze (living), Null (magic users), Fire (dunno, furry enemies? I was barred from advanced magic for being a crap student).
Always use mouse/bear traps unless your enemy doesn't have feet.
Oh, and the undead oil whenever applicable.
They're totally reusable. So yeah, use all of that.

Try to have multiple trap and runes. You get in a fight with 3 enemies? No problem, you've already prepared your weapons with oils and runes, you drop a counter-spell on the ground, set a couple of traps and deal with the most immediate threat. They start to get free? Use your spare traps. You might even get out of that "difficult" fight with nearly no damage (nor expense) taken.

- Keep sleeping powder handy, it's OP. Enemies affected by it (breathing creatures?) will be out of the fight and you can then fight each one you've put to sleep on your own terms if you wish. Single use and single target, so best used for special enemies and big fights. A busy screen that you need to clear is your cue to start throwing those powder bags.

- Sneak past all undead enemies unless you're prepared with undead protection and anti-undead stuff. Undead oil (edit: Eau d'enchant), undead protection medallion are a must, better if you have a Sol rune though, particularly for multiple enemies. Check your character stats and make sure you have 50 undead protection (aka the right amulet) before venturing in places with undead roaming around, if possible. Even the friendly undead. Other than a telegraphed event or two, there is no rush to explore the catacombs. Well, maybe three events. By the way, it would help to keep your own annotated map of the catacombs because the game doesn't give you one and they're pretty big and unintuitive.

Oh, and there is no direct benefit to picking a fight with a Ghost or a Wraith so try not to. There is a reason the Master discourages that sort of heroics. We have Paladins for that (hint, hint).

It's not that hard once you become fully prepared for spooky stuff, though.

- Try to win Poobah games if possible (keep some money handy for the evening after each exam), each game can help you render money a non-issue if you get lucky and you know Poker even in passing. Try to actually guess when to fold and when to go and when you should discard some cards and you should do okay even if you lose/don't win a lot in a couple of the games. I think you get 5 chances to play? Although you probably won't care about the last game, other than hoping somebody else loses or wins.
Might be an annoying minigame to play if you don't know the first thing about Poker or don't like it, though.

- Halfway thorough the game you will be told you're halfway thorough the game, so that will answer the question of how much time you have left. Anyway, it's only 50 days in total (now that's a course I could study for!).

- Throwing daggers aren't that good. Good to have as an option, but not worth training in the gym for. However you can practice throwing the grapnel and that will make Throwing more worthwile as it will raise Climbing along with it.

- "Fully" exploring the Sea Cave is more pressing than it seems, at least if you want to complete the related quest within the hidden time limit. Best I could do was give Katie half the map and some clues right before she did it on her own. It's okay if you don't win that quest, though, there are more opportunities to be the hero later. Plus you can still tame and free the sea serpent on your own time for your own reward (one of the best trinkets in the game).

- Don't worry about being sleepy, you probably had a good reason to stay up late and nobody actually blames you for it, a benefit of being among Rogues I guess. And you can take the stat hit.

- Unless you want to splurge, don't buy items from the fence in the Catacombs. Might be worth to ask him about some plot hints and sell some surplus items, though.

[HalloweenSax]

Originally posted by One Stoned Bastard:

The undead oil is reusable? I didn't know, I thought it's a one-time thing like the eau d' something, so I'm saving it for later.

[One Stoned Bastard]

Originally posted by HalloweenSax:

Originally posted by One Stoned Bastard:

The undead oil is reusable? I didn't know, I thought it's a one-time thing like the eau d' something, so I'm saving it for later.

By undead oil I meant the Eau d'encantment (or something). They're one and the same. But yeah, they're all reusable. Runes, oils, mouse/bear traps, chalk, you name it.

Only things that actually BREAK when used are single use (molotovs, glue, bombs, sometimes lockpicks can break, that type of thing, Thrown items are usually consumables while useable traps are usually reusable).

[transolar]

Thrown items and traps are retrievable after combat if Shawn wins. If he loses, they are lost. Most potions and such are consumed on use.

[jjfelder]

Thanks so much for these great tips! I haven't made much headway in the game, but I'll keep working at it.